Miller fails in first and best event on Olympic slopes

TURIN 2006

SESTRIERE, Italy -- Antoine Deneriaz screamed down the mountain, skidded to a halt and pumped his finger in the air as if he were emphatically ordering a drink.

This Bode's for you, Antoine.

The ski world expected to raise a toast to Bode Miller on Sunday. Instead, a Frenchman who never told 60 Minutes he had skied drunk ended up throwing the gold-medal party in the men's downhill.

"No one believed it could be true," said Deneriaz, the 38th-ranked skier in the world. "It is like a dream."

Perhaps the only thing more shocking than Deneriaz climbing the medal stand was that no Americans joined him. Miller and Daron Rahlves were among the favorites, but it just wasn't their day. It may, however, have been Miller's night beforehand.

Reuters reported he drank in a Sestriere bar until midnight Saturday. America's unofficial Olympic Bad Boy dismissed the story, and said the flying Frenchman was simply too good.

"The way Deneriaz skied, it would have taken a hurricane to get me into first," said Miller, who finished fifth. "He was pretty much untouchable."

Italy is not known for its tropical depressions. But if a storm was to hit this week, it was supposed to be Hurricane Bode.

He was the unshaven face of the Games, appearing on the covers of Time, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek and Rolling Stone. Meanwhile, Deneriaz probably couldn't have gotten a free subscription to Croissant Digest.

The 29-year-old tore a knee ligament last January, and missed the rest of the World Cup season that Miller dominated. If Deneriaz had been skiing drunk this year, nobody would have noticed. He was such an Olympic afterthought, he decided to treat Sunday like just another day on the slopes.

"I won because I didn't realize it was the Olympics," Deneriaz said.

Judging by Miller's chagrinned reaction at the finish line, he was well aware of his surroundings Sunday. Everybody was chasing the mark of Austria's Michael Walchhofer, who zipped down the course in 1:49.52.

Miller doesn't ski down a mountain as much as he attacks it. Imagine Evel Knievel on skis. He still has four events left, but the downhill best suited the go-for-broke style he and Nike have been marketing.

The Kandahar Banchetta course is relatively tame by World Cup standards, however. Miller started well, needed no Houdini survival maneuvers but "lost his grip" a bit in the final stages.

He finished 0.42 behind Walchhofer, who figured he had dodged the most dangerous bullet in the field. If it wasn't Miller, it was Rahlves.

The 32-year-old Californian has been the hottest skier on the World Cup circuit. He started two spots after Miller on Sunday and had a smooth run. It was just perplexingly slow.

"I'm kind of surprised," said Rahlves, who finished 10th. "I went out there and did all that I could. It just didn't work out. Looking back, there's nothing I would have done differently."

He took the words right out Deneriaz's mouth. He started 30th, which is sort of like a hurricane starting in the North Sea. "Starting from the last position was difficult, but I attacked it," Deneriaz said. "My dedication paid off. Everything was perfect for me today."

He finished a whopping .72 ahead of Walchhofer. The grandstands erupted when his time was posted.

As widespread toasting started in Paris, some French fans wearing red-white-and-blue wigs spearheaded the party at the bottom of the Olympic hill.

By then, Miller had already drifted away. This time, nobody would have blamed him if he'd gone for a drink.